With the vast array of supplied brushes, tips, and shape drawing tools, Photoshop helps you produce any images, either enhanced or developed from scratch, that you might need for virtually any conceivable project. This chapter from Adobe Photoshop CS5 on Demand shows you how to use them.

Introduction

Adobe Photoshop supplies you with all types of adjustment and manipulation tools. In addition to image enhancement, Photoshop
can also be a powerful application for designing from scratch. With the vast array of supplied brushes, tips, and shape drawing
tools, Photoshop helps you produce any images, either enhanced or developed from scratch, that you might need for virtually
any conceivable project.

Brushes come in all sizes and shapes, and can be controlled with a mouse or drawing tablet. Since the shape of the tip controls
brush strokes, Photoshop gives you access to several sets of predefined brush tip shapes, or you can create your own customized
sets. As for shape drawing tools, Photoshop doesn’t limit your creativity to just drawing circles and squares; it gives you
instant access to dozens of predefined shapes. You can even create and save your own custom shapes. When it comes to Photoshop’s
paint and drawing tools, your choices are limitless, based only on your knowledge of the available tools, and a creative imagination—the
more you know, the more you can do with Photoshop.

And, when all the drawing is said and done, there will be a need for cleaning up. With the various Eraser tools that Photoshop
provides, you can make quick work of touching up those small problem areas. Photoshop provides regular eraser tools, eraser
tools that erase to a definable edge, and even eraser tools that target specific color values.

When enhancing an image, you might want to apply a gradient. Gradients can be something as simple as black and white, or as
complex as one that contains the colors of the rainbow. Gradients can be applied to an image by completely covering the original
image information, or they can be controlled through targeted selection, and creative uses of blending modes.